Part 6

One pint of boiling milk, one-half pint sherry; add sherry to the milk while scalding hot; stir a moment until the curd gathers; strain through a fine muslin, sweeten. To be taken cold. This takes a little practice to gather the curd as it should be done.

POACHED EGGS.

The best way of cooking for an invalid. Slip the egg, previously broken into a saucer (the fresher the egg the better), carefully into salted water which is boiling in a frying pan, then immediately set the pan at the side of the stove so that the water does not boil, keep it there for about five minutes. Let the water be about two inches deep in the iron frying pan. Each egg must be broken separately and slipped carefully into the water. When cooked so that the white is firm but jelly like, no part being raw or hard, take it out with a skimmer and slip it on a piece of thin buttered toast, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top, serve immediately. Garnish with parsley.

SCRAMBLED EGGS.

Beat two eggs until thoroughly mixed, add two tablespoonfuls of milk, salt and pepper. Pour into a very hot frying pan, buttered, and stir constantly for about two minutes. Pour over buttered toast.

SHIRRED EGGS.

Heat the shirring cup very hot. Put in a piece of butter as big as a large pea. Shake it about and break in the egg. Let it remain on the stove a few moments and serve in the shirring cup. Sprinkle salt and pepper on it.

OMELETTE.

Beat very stiff two eggs, whites and yolks separately, add two tablespoonfuls of milk and a little salt. Pour carefully into a small frying pan, hot and buttered. As soon as the egg is set, slip a knife under one side and fold one side over the other. Slip on a piece of toast and serve at once. A little finely minced ham or parsley flavors it very well.

RENNET.

One pint of milk slightly warmed and sweetened and flavored, add one large teaspoon of liquid rennet. Stir for a moment and set it in a refrigerator. To be eaten with sugar and cream.

BOILED CUSTARD.

One pint of milk and 2 eggs. Beat the eggs, add the milk heated almost to the boiling point. Stir in 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar. Return to the double boiler, and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring gently all the time. When done it will be about as thick as cream. Be careful not to let it cook too much as it will "separate" and be spoiled.

BAKED CUSTARD.

Same ingredients and proportions as for boiled custard, only let milk be cold. Pour into custard cups. Stand these in a dripping pan half full of warm water and bake in a pretty hot oven. Watch carefully, bake 15 minutes.

THIN BREAD AND BUTTER.

Have a loaf of good home-made bread, yesterday's baking, cut off the crust, then butter the loaf and cut the slice in this way, buttering first and cutting afterwards. The slice can be made very thin and dainty, and the thinner it is, the better. A patient will sometimes relish this when tired of all kinds of toast or crackers.

THE NURSE AS RELATING TO HER OWN TRAINING SCHOOL AND TO HER FELLOW NURSES

Always be loyal to your own school and hospital. It may not have been in every respect perfect; but it is not necessary to tell strangers of its imperfections: probably those in authority are just as sensible of its short-comings as you are, and perhaps they work harder than you do to right its wrong; in any case it does no good to tell others of the things you disapproved. It may indeed be that your criticism is one-sided and unfair, that the very rules you hated and found hard to keep are the wisest ones, and, if you let strangers see that you disapprove of these wise regulations, the opinion they will form of your intelligence will certainly not be flattering to you.

When you meet other nurses in your work, as you are sure to do, and when you compare your school with the one the other nurse came from, try to realize that the other school is neither wholly above nor wholly below your own; each has probably its own merits and its own drawbacks. You should not tell the other nurse any of your own school's shortcomings, any sooner than you would tell them to any other stranger; be loyal everywhere to the place where you were fitted for your work.

Never tell revolting hospital stories to your patients. Some people have the most morbid wish to hear dreadful details. I remember a patient of mine, years ago, asking me in all good faith to tell her the most horrible thing I had ever seen in all my hospital experience. I asked her why she wished to hear such things, and after some reflection she acknowledged that it was a foolish, morbid curiosity. It is best to keep the dreadful side entirely out of sight; there are plenty of bright, interesting, pleasant things always occurring; tell of these. Tell of the cunning little babies in the lying-in ward, the absurd little black ones, the fat little German and Swede babies. Tell of the surly drunken men that come, and how a week of cleanliness in bed, with a broken leg, or it may be a cracked skull, will change them into quiet, polite, pleasant patients; and how, later, they will take their turn at washing dishes, with a docility that would make their wives stupid with amazement. All such matters (and the more you try to think of them, the more you will be able to recall) will amuse and really edify your patient, many of whom think of a hospital only as a place of terror.

Never gossip about your sister nurses; of the stupidity of one, the untidiness of another, or the overbearing nature of the third. It can do no good, and it lowers you in the estimation of every one who hears you talk.

As for your duties to each other, I would have you always observe the same punctilious etiquette outside that you do in the hospital. When you are called to assist another nurse, remember that she is the head nurse; the case is hers. She gives directions, and you follow them; be sure you do it faithfully. If you have some one to assist you, be sure you arrange for her rest and exercise, and that you leave intelligently written orders when you go for your own rest.

Some very awkward complications may arise where there are two nurses, and the worst, I think, is for the patient and family to like the second nurse better than the first one, and to criticise her and find fault with her to the other nurse. This is hard all around. The second nurse expects the first one to be preferred, and usually dislikes to go to such a case, for that very reason; but if any of you find that under such circumstances you are preferred, never allow the people to retail to you the faults of the other nurse, and never gossip about her. She may not suit them, but she is probably doing the best she can, and such idle talk can do no good. If they will talk, make all the excuses for her you can, and never let her suspect from any action of yours, that you are preferred above her. If, on the other hand, you are the first nurse and some second one is called in, and preferred before you, study her well. See how it is that she wins the patient's confidence, when you did not. Try to find out, in a quiet way, wherein lies her charm. If it is quietness, exactness, cheerfulness, or ready tact--it must be something--and if you are clever you must see how it happens that she is preferred. It will be a good lesson for you. Perhaps you will never have such another chance for learning what you have found out by experience you lack. So do not waste your time by allowing yourself to feel jealous, but use it as a time of study, and you may reap a rich reward by winning your next patient's confidence.

VII

WHY DO NURSES COMPLAIN?

It seems to some of us, judging from the prevailing tone of nurses' conversations, that this is a veritable age of discontent. We hear that a nurse's life is confining; that it is wearing on the nerves; it keeps one from enjoying society; it is not sufficiently remunerative, etc., etc. We all know, without going into further particulars, what a nurse could complain about, and though each one's tale of woe may be perfectly true, it seems to me we are not wise, as nurses, to allow the trials of our professional life to occupy such a prominent position in our thoughts.

Let us glance at some of the other professions, and see how the members of each regard their chosen work. What is the prevailing theme of the religious newspapers? Is it complaints from the ministers that they are not appreciated, or that their life wears on their nerves? Not that surely, but we read of more and more work to be done; more and more need of the gospel to be preached and lived, that all may be attracted to it. What do we read in the medical journals? Not how often Dr. Jones or Dr. Smith has been called up at night, or how often they have been dismissed or maligned by ungrateful patients; neither do they talk of such things. Do they complain that they are kept from the presence of "Society?" Not so, and why? Their enthusiasm is such that these matters are accepted as part of the inevitable, and the higher, nobler aim is so real that the lower and meaner consideration of personal comfort sinks into insignificance. What is the soldier's favorite tale? Not that all through the war he had to drink his coffee without cream, that he did not have sheets on his bed, and that he ate from a tin plate. Would he ever speak of such things, except to show that a man can for a noble aim accept inconvenience, and laugh over it? Yet the soldier has probably been used to these comforts and many more all of his life in his home; but viewed in the light of his enthusiasm for the country he is striving to save, and seen by the side of her peril, such inconveniences sink into their merited nothingness.